


To the Future

by Duchesse



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Atmospheric, Bittersweet, F/M, Fluff, Hair stroking, M/M, Reader-Insert, Reader-Interactive, Romance, Self-Insert, gender-neutral
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-15 00:12:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16051469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duchesse/pseuds/Duchesse
Summary: Yours and Julian’s story in Vesuvia has come to a close, yet with your lives and hearts entwined, you both press forward into the uncertain future.[Julian Devorak/Reader].





	To the Future

The journey across the continent was a slow one, offering ample time to lose yourselves to your thoughts and apprehensions. Julian often found himself with his own company at night even now, though your shallow breaths and the warmth of your head in his lap sated his heart. 

While you were enamored by slumber, he found his lips at the rim of a bottle and tightened his face at the burn in his throat. The wagon struck a rock and jolted every now and then, sometimes the oxen laboring away at the front would disturb the chorus of cicadas in the night and make you snort awake briefly.

“We’ve certainty come a long way, haven’t we?” he was speaking to you, though his soft tones were lost the breeze and chirping frogs. After taking another swig, he corked the liquor and busied his fingers with your hair, an easy smile tilted his lips. “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have this.”

And then he listened to the night, observed the veil of glittering stars, and let the crisp air fill his lungs. His thoughts haunted him less, fading by the day like the memories from a nightmare that filled him with unease yet he could not quite recall. 

He couldn’t erase the past again, not with what he shared with you. The scars left on his heart, and the horror seared into his mind would be his burden to bear until the end of his days–he didn’t mind. As his knuckles stroked your cheek, relishing the warmth of your skin against his, the reality gripped at him more and more.

Neither of you would see Vesuvia again, your adventurous spirits carried you elsewhere and called for your roots to settle far away. He wondered, at times, if he was ready to truly end that chapter in his life and leave that city behind.

He knew he would question this for the days, months, maybe years to come. But he believed all things were possible with you at side, his life was his own and not as a man with an expiration date. 

The coil in his gut, the tightness in his throat, and fear of the future pushed past his lips as he sighed and leaned against the wagon.

He was free.


End file.
